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Movie – “Finding Dory”

I’ve always liked to plan my own lessons and I already have many of them although I never posted any (never thought about it, actually). So, here you are my first one and I hope you enjoy it!

Before you read it, keep in mind all my lessons are developed for one-to-one classes, however, they are quite adaptable so you may just add some changes such as group interactions and it’s done.

Finding Dory

Movies and trailers are part of our students’ lives nowadays, so why not using these resources to help them improve vocabulary?

Lesson Goal: Develop listening skills; work on vocabulary (everyday words and sea animals); Speaking practice by using the movie content and writing skills and creativity to write a quote.Suitable for: Any age group and elementary students.

Warm up:

Start the lesson by asking students if they enjoy watching movies and then which type of movies they prefer.

Extra: encourage them to say names of movie genres and write them on the board (or chat box through Skype or any tool used for online lessons).

Ask them how often they go to the movies and when was the last time they were there. Also, check if they remember the last movie they watched.

To introduce the movie “Finding Dory”, first make sure everyone knows about the previous movie “Finding Nemo”. If necessary, show them a picture or a quote of the movie.

After that, play the movie trailer (here) once and ask them what the story is about.

Note #1 : download the printable worksheet at the end of the post so you follow all the instructions to each activity.
Note #2: This lesson is based on “Trailer #1”.

VocabularyAs this lesson in designed for elementary students, you might print or send the transcript of the movie trailer (link above) so your students can read exactly what they hear.

Give them a minute or two to look up the words – synonyms, antonyms and sea animals. If they struggle to find them, you can do it together with them or have them work in pairs so the task becomes easier.

You can use this moment to introduce important words such as: “sleepswimming” and “memory loss”.

2. Speaking

Link the new words learned to the discussion part.

3. Quiz

Have students answer a quiz or write one, it’s up to you to check which one is more suitable or you can have them do both tasks. Although this is an elementary lesson you might have some beginners who are not able to come up with a quiz.

4. Writing – quotes

Quotes are usually short and relevant so in this lesson there are two quotes of the movies Finding Nemo and Finding Dory. You might also show them other famous quotes – from movies or celebrities, for instance.

First, show them the quotes (and extra quotes, if needed) and encourage them to help you write yours. After that, provide them with a topic, for instance “friendship” or “love” and finally help them write their own quote.
Extra: If you teach groups, especially teenagers and kids, ask them to hang their quotes on the wall or set up a quote contest.

I hope you enjoy this lesson and please feel free to make any comments and suggestions.